


I can't breathe (inhale and exhale)

by galaxygal



Series: Novocaine (a.k.a. the adorable stories of reader x bucky x tony x steve) [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Asthma, Asthma attack, Asthmatic Reader, F/M, M/M, Multi, Rated teen for language, so suck it up, that's all the tags I'm doing this time, this is the second freaking time I've done this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-23 00:41:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7459881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxygal/pseuds/galaxygal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Requested by Happy_Spirit<br/>•••••<br/>Y/N has asthma. It's a fact of life, usually not a big deal. It's annoying when she's in training, but whatever.<br/>It does get pretty bad though when she's sick...<br/>Luckily, Tony knows what to do.<br/>Steve and Bucky are more than happy to be his assistants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I can't breathe (inhale and exhale)

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second time I've written this. The first one got deleted.  
> This one is officially going to be much better.  
> Which isn't saying much, but whatever.
> 
> I do have asthma myself, so this is loosely based on some experiences I've had with it.
> 
> I don't know if anyone will need it, but I am adding a Trigger Warning just because of the asthma attack scene.

Y/N was sick.  
She had pneumonia again. She was used to this; she used to get it all the time when she was younger, usually once every year for a few months at a time.  
She hasn't had this bad of a spell in a while.  
Her breath rumbled in her lungs and throat, coming out in wheezes, and making her voice rough. The vibrations tickled her chest, and she was just all around miserable.  
Her three boyfriends had flitted around her, but she batted them away once their affections had turned from endearing to overbearing. She loved them, but she was sick and just wanted a little bit of space. And there was still the irrational fear inside her that they wouldn't want to stay with her once they realized not only how ugly she was when she was sick, but also just how sick she got. She was worried they would get tired of having to be worried over her.

Y/N's train of thought got cut off as a sudden added pressure forced the air out of her lungs. She panicked as her breaths began to come in short supply.  
Gasping for air, she began violently coughing, and she began to grow hot, one hand pressed to her chest to try and ease the pain. The other was frantically searching the bed stand for her inhaler.

The door slammed open as her frantic boyfriends, having been alerted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. of Y/N's condition, quickly moved into action.  
Tony grabbed the inhaler which had somehow made it onto the floor, and pressed the mouth of it to Y/N's lips, pressing down on the metal canister, and the girl gratefully sucked the air in, holding her breath to allow the medicine to come in before returning to her coughing and wheezing, though not quite as violently.  
Tony pulled her into an upright sitting position, searching her eyes worriedly. Both of their gazes were watery, and after a minute, Tony gave her another puff, before turning to the other two, who had been standing nervously while watching.

"Give her another puff in a minute. Only do it twice more, unless she keeps on coughing. And have her try and copy your breaths, just make sure she keeps on breathing." The two nodded at Tony's instructions, though both of their gazes were on Y/N, as they slid to sit on either side of her.  
Tony slipped out of the room, in search of something, leaving the three alone for a moment.  
Steve, sitting on her right, was taking deep, rhythmatic breaths ("in through your nose and out through your mouth, love. That's perfect, you're doing great, now can you do another for me?"), while Bucky followed Tony's instructions to a T, giving her one puff after a minute, and then another.  
Tony had come back by then, holding a small white box-like machine with a blue lid and a long clear tube with a translucent green attatchment at the end of it. He plugged it into the wall, inserting a small canister of something- medicine, the super soldiers assumed- into the machine, before flipping a switch. It began humming loudly, emitting a puffing sound not dissimilar to that of the inhaler's.  
Y/N, recognizing immediately what the thing was, took the green tube into her mouth, and began breathing in the mist it put off, her wheezing beginning to turn into more calm breaths after a few minutes of using the whatever-it-was.

"It's a nebulizer," Tony told them softly, his eyes trained on his girlfriend as he gently held her hand, rubbing the back with his thumb. "It gives her medicine that will help her breathing more long-term. You usually don't use it much, but she definitely needs it now."  
Y/N didn't respond, her eyes trained on the bedspread, though she couldn't exactly speak around the tube even if she wished so.

"Steve used to have asthma attacks," Bucky commented, causing the girl to look up at him, slightly surprised, but not much. "They didn't have all these fancy machines, but I wish they did. This punk was a total drama queen, coulda totally used 'em."  
Steve smiled faintly at him, nuzzling his nose into the other boy's neck, all of them simply relieved nothing worse had happened.

"There was a kid in my elementary school who had asthma. His was really bad. I used to walk him to the nurse every day before lunch, and on Thursdays before P.E. I helped the nurse get everything set up for him. He had to use the nebulizer every day for a long time." Tony was quiet after that, and Y/N gently squeezed his hand, secretly loving these more intimate moments with him, when he let go of the arrogant asshole facade he put up and just allowed himself to be as is.

They sat their on the bed, even after Tony put the machine away, listening to Y/N's breathing attentively, and slowly drifting off to sleep, wrapped in each other's arms.


End file.
